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Topic: Getting a "raise" (Read 12635 times)

The most I would do is to clarify with your supervisor if this increase will be seen as your annual salary action or is it an increase in relation to your new responsibilities.

In my corporation, we give out annual salary increases in March but if someone takes on a new role in November, I'd be able to give them a small promotion raise and then they'd get their annual increase based on their new salary in March.

I totally disagree with the "Be happy you have a job" attitude.I also completely agree with "Do not be hostile" advice.

Negiotiating a salary should NOT be an emotional discussion (though I agree that it is very emotional). In general, if you have an increase in duties you should have an increase in salary.

So line up a few things.

What is your surrent salary? What is your percent raise? (If it is less than 2%, it is not a raise, it is just keeping up with inflation) Is this your only raise for the year? How is salary negiotiated?

Will this promotion require extra work? How much? Will it require extra skills?

Then you go in and say a) You are happy the company has seen that you are capable of taking over this new position.b) You are excellent in this position because of X, Y and Z.c) However you are disappointed in the renumeration because (it doesn't cover the extra hours/skills/responsibilities/inflation-whatever is true)d) What can be done about this? (Here you can request $300/month or XX% or a perk that you want-aim a little higher than you want)

Maybe you get an offer for a raise immediately, maybe you get a bonus, maybe you get some other duties taken away maybe you get a promise to discuss this in 6 months. (You can always push for the last one if you can't get anything else)

I can see how a raise can be insulting, though I don't think I have enough information here to determine if the OP's is in that category. If you are doing your typical job plus an amount of work that is typically worth $X a month and they offer you a raise that only brings you up to 1/4X + typical salary, it is undervaluing you. If you walked in clean and they offered you 1/4 of what say an engineer in that position would normally get, it is an insult as they are underpaying, so I don't see why that wouldn't apply to raise given to reflect additional duties.

I would only do something about it though if I was sure that the raise was truly not enough given the work I was doing, while also keeping in mind the studies that have shown that women are less likely to negotiate for better pay & benefits.

Or they might decide that they won't burden you with future raises or promotions and if layoffs roll around in the future you might be the person who comes to mind first.

You do need to know the tone and culture of your organization when going into a negotiation. It's possible your organization could be that hostile to the conversation. But I think in general it doesn't make a lot of sense to blacklist a good employee because they asked for an increase. If you know you are an asset to the team, you've had positive reviews, have received a promotion recently and have a good relationship with your boss I don't believe you are jeopardizing your career by having this discussion.

In a large corporation with a large employee population there are lots of salaries and raises being discussed on an ongoing basis for applicants and current employees at all levels of the organization. I can't imagine the OP is the only one that has ever broached a salary negotiation and that the company systematically blacklists all employees who do. Stranger things have happened! But if nothing about the org culture has indicated that is the case, I wouldn't let that alone deter me from the discussion.

Have a number that would be both realistic and acceptable to you. Be prepared for the answer to be "no" and have a professional response ready to that. You could even leverage this conversation into one about your goals and where you'd like to be in "x" years. Structure the conversation so that whatever the outcome, you are coming across as confident and ambitious.

Maybe you get an increase. Maybe not. But take the opportunity to show your boss that you are ready, willing and capable to climb the corporate ladder.

And while my specialty was not compensation, it was my experience that the "higher ups" in the company (whether they were incumbents or applicants) were always the ones negotiating increases. It was actually expected that would happen. It was just really common! Not that they always got the salary they wanted, but they would negotiate.

I think you should take prior posters' advice about figuring out what an average raise is in your industry for your level, take that toying supervisor, and calmly and unemotionally negotiate.

I think it would be totally inappropriate to return or decline the raise. That just makes you look irrational.

Also, I think this is a pretty good lesson on why income/money are good topics of conversation to avoid unless you know your group well. I understand where you're coming from - in my industry, it's normal for me to expect certain bonuses and raises at the end of the year, and I know my company did well this year, so I would be very upset if I didnt get both of those. But because so many people are unemployed/underemployed/employed but really could use the extra money you are getting, conversations about not getting enough extra money will rarely go well.

I'm going to agree with Tabby. This is not an etiquette issue and this is certainly not an issue where you should be worrying about 'insult'. This is a professional question of appropriate compensation and you need to handle it like a professional - do your research, decide what you think is appropriate, discuss it with your boss, be prepared to listen to his side. If he/she is not willing to increase your raise flat out, sometimes a discussion of "what would I need to do to reach that level of compensation" can be useful.

If your negotiations are unsuccessful, than you can start seeing if you want to take your talents elsewhere. That's all there is too it.

OP is already getting an increase. What she would be asking for is an increased increase. As fae as the culture, two of the Big 3 got bailed out just a few short years ago. Retitees lost a lot of what they had negotiated and thought they could count on after de,ades with the companies. Thousands lost jobs, saw pay and benefits change for the worse and entire communities have felt the impact.

OP is already getting an increase. What she would be asking for is an increased increase. As fae as the culture, two of the Big 3 got bailed out just a few short years ago. Retitees lost a lot of what they had negotiated and thought they could count on after de,ades with the companies. Thousands lost jobs, saw pay and benefits change for the worse and entire communities have felt the impact.

Sure, and it's normal to negotiate an increase to an increase. It happens a lot with promotions, yearly reviews, performance reviews, merit increases. While the industry may have taken some hits and OP can take that under consideration, whatever else is happening they did have the funds to offer her a raise. Maybe they have the funds to offer a bit more If the organization hasn't put out internal communications about hiring & salary freezes, then any number is a number to negotiate. And even freeze situations don't keep the negotiating from happening!

Your points about the industry are important factors for the OP to consider in what a realistic number for her would be, but I don't think in and of themselves, they preclude that conversation from happening.

Your points about the industry are important factors for the OP to consider in what a realistic number for her would be, but I don't think in and of themselves, they preclude that conversation from happening.

Exactly. And even if it can't be afforded right.now. It means the powers that be are on notice and you can request that this be looked at in 3months or 6 months etc..

A business is in business to make money. One of the ways they make money is by keeping employee costs down. Most businesses will offer the lowest amount of money they can get by with when giving a raise (or starting a new worker). That is why there are stories (even here on Ehell) about new people starting with X Company at a higher rate than a current employee is getting for the same job.

If you are unhappy with the raise, talk to your supervisor. Several PP's have excellent suggestions on how to do this and what to say. Your OP states that you have been promoted because the company needs someone with your skillset in that position. I agree that $100. for 160 hours seems to be a pretty small increase for taking on more responsibility.

I can't blame you for being insulted. To me, a promotion and increased responsibilities warrant more than what averages out to about a 57- or 58-cent raise (if you factor in a work year of 2,080 hours so it would be less for someone who is salaried and works over 2,080 hours annually). I know I would've been happy to get that raise where I am now because my position is union so it took three years before I finally got a raise (because new contract negotiations were repeatedly unsuccessful). However, about 13 years ago, I worked for a private company where I saw my coworkers (the three of us supervised a larger group; we were all the same level supervisor) get what I considered a nice raise (I think one got another $1/hr and the other $1.25). I knew my skillset was much much higher than theirs and that I worked harder than both of them, especially one (that one was always taking a break so she could talk on the phone about her side business -- she did this when management was gone for the day). I received my annual evaluation (which was quite good) and, then, in as upbeat and excited a tone he could give me, my manager told me I was getting...a 50-cent raise. I just looked at him, but I was furious. He told me that our department's director said I had "topped out" in my position, which was a lie (from her -- she didn't like me but, since I never did anything wrong, she couldn't just fire me). I resolved then and there that I would not be sticking around another year to be insulted like that while having to slave away for (which still is) the worst company I have ever worked for in my life (they did lots of illegal things to their employees, not the least of which was threaten them to keep them from talking to any authority figure outside of the company). I did resign about nine months later (and five days after the lazy coworker also resigned). To convince the remaining supervisor not to resign as well, the director authorized offering her a substantial increase of around $2/hr (see -- told you me topping out was a lie). Considering we made $29,000-30,000/yr, an additional $4,000 a year is significant.

So, if you find that this increase is not enough, you could also start looking for employment elsewhere (which is what I did -- best decision I ever made).

I agree with the fact that she may have gotten a very small raise. However, I think it depends on the economy and the industry and how she is in her salary band and what others got.

So if the industry is growing like crazy and she is in the middle of her salary band and she was rated highly, then this is an insult.But if the economy is blah and her industry is stagnant and she is toward the top of her salary band and she got $100/mo but others only got $50, then it is a good deal.

Honestly, my initial reaction was that it's probably not in your best interest to say anything, though that would depend on factors I don't know about (if there's a general pay freeze going on, and no one had gotten a raise in two years and your boss had to work really hard behind the scenes to get you anything and then you throw it back in their face, that could seriously damage the relationship, for example).

My second reaction was, "If you don't want the $1200 for the year, and you're worried that it might bump you into a different tax bracket (unlikely, but possible), just take it, find a charitable organization that you like that could use it, and donate it to them." Why risk alienating your employer, and even more so, why just give them money? If my boss wants to give me $10, fine, I'll take it. It's money, and I'd rather I have it than they have it.

I recently got promoted to manager of my team. I've got it good, to say the least...my first official duty was to give both of my employees a significant raise.

I'll also say that unless there is a pattern of dissatisfaction or subpar work by an employee, there is no way a request for a higher raise would be a problem for me. If someone is professional, does good work and leads me to believe they are happy enough with their job that they won't be looking for greener pastures soon, I want to know if there's something they're not happy about. Maybe I can help them, maybe I can't...but either way, just asking for something that hasn't been offered is no reason to let someone go or move them to the top of the layoff list.

That said, here's my bad raise story.

During the last recession, I had a job with a consulting firm that was located in a different city. I was happy with the work and the regular pay was good, but we were neglected, to say the least.

We got a holiday bonus. It consisted of three gift cards of $10 each for three different chain restaurants. Two of the restaurants weren't located in my city. A few weeks later, apparently it got back to corporate that this move wasn't appreciated much. They then sent each of us another gift card for $25 to a superstore that gave its name to the basketball arena in Los Angeles. Again, we don't have that store in my city. The cards had expired.

Once the economy got better, I moved to the company I work for now. As you can see, things are going well for me now.